Escondido doubles campaign contribution limit

ESCONDIDO - The City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday night to double
the maximum campaign contribution an individual can make to
candidates for mayor and seats on the council.

Citing the need to keep up with inflation, the council amended
Escondido's campaign finance ordinance to increase the maximum
contribution from $250 to $500.

Councilmen Ed Gallo, Dick Daniels and Sam Abed said the change
was long overdue, explaining that the city has not increased the
maximum campaign contribution since the $250 threshold was
established in 1983.

To avoid a similar lag in the future, the new ordinance also
includes automatic hikes every two years patterned after increases
in the consumer price index.

"Using the CPI will keep us from having to come back to this in
another 25 years," said Daniels.

Pfeiler said the change would unfairly help incumbents by making
fundraising harder for challengers, who often struggle with name
recognition.

"It is difficult for challengers to get someone to write a check
for $250, let alone $500," said Pfeiler.

Waldron said the change might make local elections so expensive
that "working class" residents could not afford to run. She also
said elected officials become less responsive to a broad coalition
of voters when they can rely on a smaller number of big donors to
fund their campaigns.

But Abed said the increase was really only restoring the limits
that city officials had intended in 1983, because $500 in 2007 is
worth roughly the same as $250 in 1983.

Abed said his inflation calculations indicate the new maximum
should be $505 if the city wants to mimic the buying power that
$250 had 24 years ago.

He also said the number of voters in the city has jumped from
about 38,000 to 48,000 since 1983, which requires candidates to
hang more posters and send out more direct mail.

Abed said he does not expect the higher contribution limit to
significantly alter local elections by flooding them with "big
money." He also suggested that challengers might benefit more than
incumbents, because they need money to promote their ideas and
become well-known to voters.

The changes were prompted by a request last month from the
Escondido Chamber of Commerce.

Jerry Kaufman, a member of the chamber's board of directors and
a former Escondido councilman, said Wednesday that $500 to $1,000
is the proper range for the city's maximum donation.

"You know how hard it is to raise funds," he told the
council.

The council rejected Kaufman's request to add another amendment
to the ordinance allowing cash donations. Kaufman said cash should
be allowed because "people don't always walk around with their
checkbooks," but the council was not persuaded.

But the council did approve an increase in the amount candidates
can loan to their own campaign, from $20,000 to $100,000. Assistant
City Attorney Jennifer McCain, who wrote up the amended ordinance,
said that change was made in order to align city limits with state
limits.